Earth Day 2020: Sustainability on the Dairy Farm

Happy EARTH Day! Today, on the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, we are celebrating the first-ever virtual Earth Day during the coronavirus pandemic. And what an incredible, unusual, and, most of all, challenging Earth Day. We are facing so many uncertainties about our future. But today, we take a minute to celebrate our Earth. On a day when we are seeing greenhouse gas emissions across the world decreasing from limited use of fossil fuels. And at the same time, farms are continuing to grow and raise food to feed our communities. Farmers are the original environmentalists. Caring for our land, our animals, and our natural resources. Farmers have an unbelievable connection with our Earth and with Mother Nature. Over on Instagram, I shared a week-long series leading up to Earth Day highlighting some of my favorite facts about sustainability and dairy farming.

COLLABORATION

For me, I believe sustainability is about collaboration and reducing waste. One man's trash is another man's treasure! And dairy farmers along with the power of cows do an amazing job at reducing waste. If you have been following my page for a while, you have probably heard me say that sustainability does NOT have to big, expensive, world-changing projects. I believe that small changes and management practices across many farms can have a huge impact! Below is just a look into how dairy farmers collaborate with other farmers and local businesses to reduce waste, lower our carbon footprint, upcycle waste, and repurpose products.

NUTS

What on Earth do nutshells have to do with dairy farming?! More than you might think! Dairy farmers can take the by-products aka leftovers from the production of other crops like peanuts and almonds and use them on their farm for food, bedding, and compost.Through collaboration between local farmers, we are able to turn waste into a valuable resource.

Tires

Dairy farmers repurpose millions of tires! You might be wondering what this giant pile of tires is behind me?! Well, it's a silage pile. When we harvest our crops and chop the whole plant, we call that silage. We store the silage in what is basically giant ziplock bags. This stores the feed for our cows for the next couple of years.But in order to keep the feed fresh, we have to keep all the air out. The tires hold the bag down and keep it sealed. We work with local tire companies to take their used and worn-out tires. These tires can be used year after year on the farm.So if you ever have some tires you need to get rid of, reach out to your local dairy farmer and see if they need them!

Beer

Did you know that beer plays an important part in dairy sustainability? The spent grain or leftover grain from brewing beer and producing ethanol (also known as DDGs or dried distillers grain) can be fed to cows.Dairies take the spent grain from local breweries and incorporate it into the cows' diets. This grain would otherwise end up in a landfill. Instead, it is a nutrient-rich, high-protein feed source for cattle.

Cotton

Cottonseed is every farm kid's favorite place to play on the dairy. I have talked about cottonseed a couple of times before because it is such an important part of our cows' diet. It is another great source of protein and it can help improve the milk quality. Cottonseed is what is leftover from producing cotton. Every bulb of cotton has a seed at the center that is removed when making cotton. We feed those seeds to our cows.

Grocery Stores

Do you ever wonder what happens to the leftovers at the grocery stores? Like what happens to the produce and other products when they are past their expiration date?Well, they can be fed to cows! Grocery stores will deliver truck-fulls of perfectly great food that just didn't get purchased at the store. Dairy farmers will incorporate this food into the cows' diet. I was at a dairy a couple of years ago in October and the cows' feed was full of pumpkins that were all leftovers from a local grocery store.

Reducing Waste

Dairy farmers across the country work to reduce waste through collaborations with local businesses and other farmers. Above are just a couple of the ways dairies can use products and feed leftovers that would otherwise end up in a landfill.As I shared all week on Instagram, I heard from dairy farmers from all over about different things they feed their cows and use on their farm that are local to their area. From feeding cows: citrus pulp in Florida to green chile in New Mexico to almond hulls in California to ugly produce in Arizona to vegetable leftovers in Maryland.

Trash

What about the waste produced by a dairy? Dairy farms bring in a lot of feed and products, but they don't create very much trash. Almost everything gets used and reused.We take out our roll-off box (aka dumpster) of trash about every 3 weeks. That's a farm with a community of over 2000 cows plus the employees and 2 farmhouses. It's pretty amazing to me how little waste there is. I think about how much trash my little family of four produces (hello, can anyone say toddlers?) and I compare that to the whole dairy and caring for all the cows.The biggest thing that leaves the farm? Milk.

Earth Day

Every day is Earth Day for dairy farmers. We are constantly working to improve our sustainability across the farms. Today on Earth Day, I am celebrating the fact that DAIRY IS AN ENVIRONMENTAL SOLUTION!!

Udderly sustainable,New Mexico Milkmaid